Portal:Aviation/Anniversaries/December 19

December 19


 * 2009 – A Hawker Siddeley HS 748 overruns the runway at Tonj Airfield, Southern Sudan, killing one person on the ground. The aircraft is carrying security personnel in preparation for a visit from President Salva Kiir Mayardit.


 * 2005 – Chalk's Ocean Airways Flight 101, a Grumman Mallard, crashes off the coast of Miami Beach, Florida, killing all 20 on board.


 * 1999 – Launch: Space Shuttle Discovery STS-103 at 19:50:00 EST. Mission highlights: Hubble Space Telescope servicing.


 * 1997 – SilkAir Flight 185, a Boeing 737, crashes abruptly into the Musi River near Palembang, Indonesia, killing all 102 people on board.


 * 1990 – Northwest Airlines buys a 25% share in Hawaiian Airlines


 * 1989 – American Airlines purchases the Central and South American routes owned by struggling Eastern Air Lines.


 * 1986 – Space Shuttle Columbia mission STS-61 C is aborted at T-minus 31 seconds due to a problem with the solid rocket booster. The clock was set back to T-20 min, but ended again at T-9 min when the launch window closed due to weather. The mission would later depart January 12, and land 10 days before the Challenger accident took place, making it the last successful shuttle mission before the accident.


 * 1981 – United States Navy Grumman F-14 Tomcat, BuNo 159623, NG-205, of US Navy Fighter Squadron 24 VF-24 is lost during a carrier landing mishap aboard USS_Constellation_(CV-64), deployed in the Indian Ocean. Aircraft caught the #4 arresting cable, which was set for the wrong aircraft weight. Pilot and RIO ejected successfully and were rescued by an SH-3 flown by HS-8 (now HSC-8). The Tomcat sank after floating a few minutes. Video of this mishap is posted on YouTube.


 * 1980 – New York Air begins airline operations.


 * 1978 – First flight of the Beriev A-50


 * 1976 – A Piper Cherokee buzzes Memorial Stadium in Baltimore, Maryland, minutes after the conclusion of a National Football League playoff game between the Baltimore Colts and the Pittsburgh Steelers and crashes into the stadium's upper deck. There are no serious injuries, and the pilot is arrested for violating air safety regulations.


 * 1978 – Retired: Fairey Gannet.


 * 1956 – Seventeenth Lockheed U-2A, 56-6690, Article 357, delivered to the Central Intelligence Agency 21 September 1956, crashes in Arizona this date, Detachment C pilot Bob Ericson successfully bailing out after losing control due to hypoxia caused by a faulty oxygen feed.


 * 1950 – AFirst prototype Douglas XA2D-1 Skyshark, BuNo 122988, c/n 7045, crashes at Edwards AFB, California, on its 15th flight. Taken up by Navy Lt. Cdr. Hugh Wood for dive tests, the first was initiated from 30000 ft. During the 5g pullout from the second dive, begun at 20000 ft, vapor begins trailing from the airframe, soon enveloping it, but stops when the ventral dive brakes are retracted. While turning back for a visual inspection from the ground, the XA2D begins losing altitude rapidly. Pilot attempts to land on the dry lakebed but is unable to flare properly and the dive angle is too steep. With the undercarriage in the down position, the airframe strikes the ground at high speed at a 30 degree angle, shearing off the gear, the prototype then sliding several hundred yards before burning, killing the pilot. Investigation finds that the starboard power section of the coupled Allison XT40A turboprop engine had failed and did not declutch, allowing the Skyshark to fly on the power of the opposite section, nor did the propellers feather. As the wings' lift disappeared, a fatal sink rate was induced. Additional instrumentation and an automatic decoupler are added to the second prototype, but by the time it is ready to fly on 3 April 1952, sixteen months have passed, and with all-jet designs being developed, the A2D program is essentially dead. Total flight time on the lost airframe were barely 20 hours.


 * 1945 – Cabinet approved the formation of an Air Component of the Royal Canadian Navy.


 * 1945 – First flight of the Grumman AF Guardian


 * 1944 – The U. S. Navy submarine USS Redfish (SS-395) torpedoes and sinks the Japanese aircraft carrier Unryū in the East China Sea with the loss of 1,239 lives. There are 147 survivors.


 * 1944 – 2nd Lt. Robin C. Pennington of VMF-914 out of MCAS Cherry Point, North Carolina, is killed in the crash of Brewster F3A-1 Corsair, BuNo 04634, 'L69', while on a GCI training mission to intercept a North American PBJ Mitchell, his fighter coming down in a swampy area .25 mi E of Great Lakes, North Carolina, striking the ground left wing low. Privately recovered in 1990, there then follows a legal battle with the National Museum of Naval Aviation in 1994 which tries to lay claim to the rare Brewster-produced model (only 735 versus the 12,571 built by Vought) which is only finally resolved in the private individual's favour by an Act of the U.S. Congress in 2005.


 * 1941 – No. 420 (Bomber) Squadron was formed in England.


 * 1928 – Harold Pitcairn flies his first autogiro.


 * 1916 – Captain MM Bell-Irving flying a Morane Scout of No. 1 Squadron, RFC, claimed first Canadian victory by destroying an enemy aircraft. He was awarded DSO.


 * 1910 – Imperial Japanese Army Captain Yoshitoshi Tokugawa makes the first heavier-than-air flight in Japan piloting a Farman III (biplane).


 * 1908 – The world’s first aerodrome, Port-Aviation, is opened 12 mi outside of Paris.